All the Best Dogs

Gr 3-6–Dog-loving kiddos will enjoy this well-constructed book with shifting narrators about a weekend in June that changes its characters’ lives. Black-and-white illustrations float through the pages, pleasantly cartoonish with thick lines and sweet portrayals of all the different dogs featured in the story. All the main characters (mostly sixth graders at MS 123 in Brooklyn, several different dogs, and a couple of adults) get their chance to share their side of a story about what happens during one weekend in their neighborhood dog park. The characters read like real kids with real emotions, such as Ezra who is sometimes overwhelmed with worry, or Mei-Alice who doesn’t feel she can talk about her nervousness over singing in the school musical. The core conflict is resolved, but all the children’s and adults’ problems are not perfectly fixed at the end of the book, and that’s okay; at this stage of reading, readers won’t need to have everything neatly tied up with a bow. At just over 200 pages, the length is great for late-elementary or middle school readers, though the vocabulary at times might be a stretch.